A Wander on the Wildside: Greece, Day 7 - birding galore at Aegina Island! 11th April 2018

All 40 of us left the hotel in Athens bright and early at around 07:30am in order to arrive with time to spare before getting the ferry across to Aegina Island. We left at 9am, and once we left the harbour myself and my friends went up to the top of the ferry. Unfortunately the weather was disappointing, and for most of the day it was cloudy and grey. However, I must say that the birds did not disappoint. After we'd left the harbour, about 20 minutes after leaving, with the harbour still in sight, I spotted the first birds on the water (that weren't gulls.) As I scrambled to get the camera out I was delighted to find that they were Yelkouan Shearwater - the same species I'd spotted from the coach the day before. This time much closer, though the ferry disturbed them a lot, as they flew off when we got within 30m of them. However, there were so many of them that I got some decent pictures as well as the awful ones obviously. Also spotted on the sea was a distant Cory's Shearwater.

When we arrived at Aegina, we boarded the ferry so we could visit the first site, which was the Temple of the Aphaea. Seconds after getting out of the coach I heard Cretzschmar's Bunting and Redstart.

We explored the temple further and in preparation for visiting the massive Acropolis on the final day learnt about the structures and why it was so significant for the ancient islanders.

Soon after, we headed off to another part of the island to have lunch. The journey there was stunning, and looking across a bay I spotted a Pygmy Cormorant flying across. 2 Stonechat and a stonking m Whinchat perched on fenceposts near what seemed to be a nature reserve. We ate at a small restaurant on the coast and it was probably the best meal of the week. Though I couldn't eat the calamari or prawn I enhaled 26 Whitebait and could've eaten a whole pile more.

My piscis massacre was peacefully enjoyed except when I spotted a group of birds out of the corner of my eye, with further inspection revealing them to be 9 Purple Heron. A nice lunchtime tick!

We left for a walk around the coastal port of Egina, where we bought ice creams and chilled. 45 minutes later it was time to board the ferry again, and after getting permission from the group leader to stay outside and do some birding for the next hour or so. It started very well, and almost immediately a Cory's Shearwater flew by rapidly, so I got some usual crap shots. I then decided to take a video, which worked slightly better. Only 2 Yelkouan Shearwater were seen, so it seemed as if most of them had moved on. Further on there were lots of gull families, and some cormorants on a large rocky outcrop. Then everything calmed down and only the occasional gull was seen, so I headed back inside.

Overall an extremely successful day - considering I was on a school trip seeing so many birds was fortunate!